Episode 11 Part two Eastern Ky Turkey hunt.

Robert and his hunting buddy Roy meet up with one of the land owners they hunt on to chase gobblers in eastern Ky. Tune in to see if they did any good.     For the love of cheeseburgers part 2. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Alpha Gal Dorsman Podcast, where we talk all things Alpha Gal and all things outdoors. Everything from hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, canoeing, kayaking, jeeping, off-roading, even gardening. I'm your host, Robert Worley. Hey y'all, welcome back to another episode of Alpha Gal Doorsman. This is part two of the Eastern Kentucky Turkey Hunt. Me and my buddy Roy are on our way home. Before we get too far into this, uh one more announcement I forgot to make on part one episode is uh I got a phone call from a writer. Now, I can't go into a lot of detail because I got all the information written down at home. Um but this writer uh called me and was putting, I'm not a hundred percent sure what it's all about, uh, putting some stuff together, and she wanted my story. Um she asked if uh she could record a phone conversation, and um, you know, and she was gonna ask me a bunch of questions, pretty much like we do when I interview people on Alpha Gout Dorsman. And I told her I got one better. I asked her if we could just put this off and um record it a little later, and I would send her a Zoom, and uh I would have her as a guest on Alpha Gout Dorsman. Yeah, we're gonna take 75 North. Um, have her for a guest on Alpha Gout Dorsman, and um uh and then she could have all her info info. So I'm really looking forward to this. I can't remember. She was kind of prepping stuff for some seminar or something. She said it was running a little late. Uh I'll get the details put together during that episode. So um, next thing is uh we listened to the other episode while we was at Turkey Camp just to see if I had any major editing to do. And um, you can hear the road. So it is an experiment. I said that last episode, right, Roy? You did. So um it's an experiment. We're on uh we're about to get on I-75 North. We're heading home from Turkey Camp, and it was a great weekend. Uh, we are heading home a day early. I think they're looking for a little rain and stuff tomorrow, and uh, my work's piling up, and um uh, you know, so um you guys all met my buddy Roy last uh last episode. Um he's back with me. So Roy.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Man, I had a good weekend, did you? I had an absolute astonishing weekend. It was amazing. Bell of turkeys.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

How how many times did we climb these mountains down here? Too many my knees are telling me. Yeah. It's uh it's it's we were up a lot every morning, every afternoon.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

It's I don't know, maybe we should have hunted the bottoms more. Uh maybe. My knees said we should have hunted the bottoms every night because they're it you burn you burn them out during the day. Yeah, right, right.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

So um we had some success and we have some not so much success. Um, I don't know where do we start? Do we start with the first morning? Start right now. Do we save that for the good spot? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So uh as I said in the first episode of part one, one of the landowners um that uh we hunt on the property, Arnie, um, I actually went to school with him. I think I mentioned all that before. Um he came down and met us, which is awesome, you know. Um, but he's not a turkey hunter. I think he's only turkey hunted one other time in his life, and I think that was with my I think my dad called for him, you know. So um Roy's actually learning how to call and getting pretty good. Um but we went out together first morning. I didn't take a gun, I was just calling. We uh we went out and we was really hoping to have Turkey's goblin on the roost. I mean rarely have I hunted the farm, which is 100 acres, which Arnie owns, and not herdbird's goblin on the roof. They was super hush-mouthed all weekend and Monday and Tuesday. It was like it was tough. But so we get in and we're like, where are we going? We said we just busted the ridge right off the bat in the morning. We get up and we don't go very deep in, we just get up on um the ridge. We just get up on the ridge and we kind of set up. So I had Roy about 20 yards to my right, and he was up just a little bit, and I had Arnie 20 yards to my left, and he was even with me parallel, you know, and um we knew where each everybody knew where everybody was at, so it was safe. But you know, we started some light calling, we sat for a while, and um Roy, you might as well they come up on your side.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

I did. The hens uh the hens made their uh I heard them down putting uh in the holler. I forgot about that. Yeah, we heard them. Heard them pretty early. They were they were real, real faint, and uh you hear some scratching. Uh you actually came over uh after several several minutes of calling and not hearing anything, and uh you came over and actually talked to me almost kind of like what we're talking now, and and I told you I hear them over the ridge, and you you uh said all right. So I went and sat back down and resumed calling. And uh it was probably about 10, maybe 15 minutes. Uh they were on us. And I mean they came in like a thief in the night. They were quiet, uh, they uh they purred a little bit, uh they clucked a little bit, but they were on us.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

How many how many hens were there? There were uh four four or five hens. Four or five. And they I didn't know, I had no idea we even had a turkey around us until I looked and you had your gun up in the shooting position. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Then when they come up, the uh the first hen was kind of shadowed, so couldn't really tell if it was a uh a Tom or not. So I kind of pulled up and uh was hoping and praying, and uh then all of her girlfriends joined her, and before we knew it, I was sitting there watching all of them just dust themselves and pluck around, and they were uh listening to you uh you know, soft purr, and uh you were you were holding them still.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

That's what I well when I seen your gun up, um that's kind of when I did. I really lightened up my calling. Um And I still didn't see him for a long time. I mean, total, how long did you watch birds? 40-45 minutes. Long time. Yeah. Arnie was you was 25 yards, 20 yards from me. He was 20 yards on the other side of me. He had no idea there was a bird even around. You couldn't see him, it was thick. Yeah, which is it's I mean, it just goes to tell you that them birds can be in on you and you not know it. I mean, they can be there, you know. Um so when I I kept looking, kept looking, and finally I could see a couple, you know, I seen their wings where they was dusting. They was getting in the into the underbrush under the under the leaf litter, and and it was pretty cool. But I could only see them for a brief minute or two. But at one point, man, they all started cackling. And and at first Arnie thought it was you calling. Yeah, he thought we were double calling. Yeah, he thought we was double calling when there was about you know there was a few hens up here, and it was only uh 20 yards in front of me, but I sat back in some thicker stuff to be hidden good, and Arnie would have had to look through that to um um to see him, and he just he couldn't see into it, you know. Um but man, it was exciting.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

If that part was super exciting, um I never I'd never been able to watch birds as long or as close as I had this weekend.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Well, the nice thing about me not being where you was at is they wasn't looking for you, they was looking for that call. And they were interested. They was looking for that call. When I seen your gun up, I started calling lighter. You know, I was I called lighter. Um, I just went to my mouth call, I caught my mouth good, and um man, it was exciting. And at one point, when I'd lost him and I couldn't see him for about I stopped calling. I think I stopped calling for 10 or 15 minutes, but you were still watching them that whole time, weren't you?

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Well, I was watching them and then uh They uh they backed out a little bit, and next thing I know, I see a Tom out of the corner of my eye was watching them intently. You know, just amazed, and then out of the corner of my eye, I just saw big old big old head. And he looked right down the aisle that I was that I was looking down through, looked square up at me. And I thought, that's a Tom. He was gonna thump you. Yeah. Boys, boys had been invited to the party. Yeah, now it's a party. And uh it uh you had that soft call and it was driving all three of them crazy. They came in, and uh, but they came in so quiet. They weren't even making noise when they all they were all around. They were there.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

I they that so total we would have had seven birds minimum. Oh yeah. Within 20, 25 yards, 30 yards, something like that. And I couldn't see them. And Arnie had no idea. Still, he still has no idea they're there at this point. He still thinks we're double calling. Yeah, he's still right, right. Yeah, but they're not really making, they're not calling much. I mean, they did one time where there was like them hens before the toms come in. You know, they all did this uh little like uh location putt, you know, or a cluck. Um and they did it a few times, it lasted about 20 seconds, and then that was that.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

And um well, when I tell you, when that tom got up on that stump behind that tree, and he got up high enough where he was really, really wanting you to show yourself. He heard that soft, that soft purr, and he was driving him crazy. It he wanted uh all the girls to join the party, and there was one missing. Yeah, yeah, he could see all of them. All of them. He was wanting, come on over here, sweet thing. And the softer you you got, the more intent he was and not worrying about anything else, but trying to locate where that was coming from. Yeah, yeah. And uh he never gave me uh a good enough shot, uh, but he was perfect. And then uh it was finally his demise because he couldn't help himself. It was well when the uh the girls went back there and they turned turned the corner, they went to to my left, which is Tord Arnie, Toward Arney, and uh they all left. And I thought, well, we've lost that. That's all over. Right, they win. And I sat there and it was probably 10 minutes. The thunder. The thunder came down.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Now he did that right after I called, but I think I had been quiet for like 10 minutes, and then I I just hit that, just hit that clock a few times, and he couldn't take it no more, and he let a gobble off. And then by this time, Arnie knows they're right in front of him 25 yards, but he still can't see him.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

I cannot believe it. Sounded like they were giving him a lap dance they were so close to him. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

At one point, I even whispered over to him because he's only 20 yards. I'm like, Arnie, you see him? And he just eased his head around a little bit and gave me the little bit of a no. No. And I mean, we kind of we didn't talk like we're talking right now, but I mean I whispered over at him where he could hear me, then birds had to hear me, you know. He's like, no. And then um, I had been waiting, I'd waited like 10 minutes, no calling. I hit that mouth call again, and he couldn't take it no longer. He gobbled. Bam! And when he did, I looked at Arnie, and Arnie was getting his gun up. I'm like, alright, he's got he can see him. But he couldn't see him yet. He just knew he was there, and uh, it wasn't. Man, then in the chaos, the chaos in the game.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Whatever been a great uh you know, great footage. I can't had my cameraman been on.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

You know, um I I fumbled with myself. I was like, I what do I do? I hear a gobble, an instinct, I'm reaching for my gun. I don't have a gun. I didn't carry one in. And um, I'm like, what do I do? What do I do? You know, and I should have grabbed that camera and fired that camera up, and I forgot. I am not, I am absolutely not a uh uh a cameraman if helmets. I I'm not good at it yet, that's for sure. But he gobbled and I looked at Arnie and and I had a great shot of Arnie. I could have, I couldn't see the bird, but I could see him. I should have had the camera on him. Man, he fired that, he shot. It was like after that gobble, it might have been 20, 30 seconds, you think. Hell yeah. That bird stuck his head, he jumped up on a stump and he looked up trying to see where that hen was at. And when he did that, he he uh Arnie Arnie seen him. Bam! I heard the bird scatter. Chaos entailed at that point. And Arnie's not a he's not a big turkey hunter, and there's a cliff, a little bit of a cliff over to the left side that that bird started flipping, it could have, it might have been hours to get him. Oh, yeah.

unknown 14:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

So I didn't know if Arnie knew to get up and go get him as soon as he shot him or not. So I jump up, and then finally I did realize, oh, camera, I should have, you know, so I snatched the GoPro, I jump up, I take off running, and the birds scatter. And then that's when I hollered toward you. I'm like, shoot him.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Now that that part part, the uh the uh butterball uh house party was over, son, and the cops had showed up and everybody was getting out of the house.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

It was the most chaotic, fun. Oh my gosh. We laughed about it for two days. We're still laughing about it.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

I watched that one run by me, you know, come by me at about 100 miles an hour, and then that second one just a little bit slower, you know. He's like the fat guy on a track team. And that was that was his demise. I pulled down on him and uh uh dropped him where uh he was just starting to take flight with me.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

He was getting ready to say goodbye to all of us. That was awesome. And you you laid the you laid the hammer to him, too. Yeah, at full sprint, son. I feel good about myself. Yeah, and I was I was thinking, Judy!

SPEAKER_00 15:10

I'm not sure that's 100% what you said about it.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Yeah, yeah, well, we'll leave a little at leave at it. We was excited. He was definitely excited. Um man, and then it was like uh 7.37 in the morning. 737. 737 on the money, and you had been watching birds for 40 minutes at that point. Since uh almost since daybreak.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

I mean, literally.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Yeah, and me, and then Arnie sitting over there had no idea there was even birds around. He just couldn't see them. No, you know, and I sat and watched, I watched you both of you guys because we hunted the n- I hunted by myself the rest of that day. And then uh Sunday we hunted together and we set up the same way each time. And I sat and watched you guys, and I could not both you guys sit so still, I can't do it, man. I gotta move around a little bit, so I call and then I rake a few leaves and flip my leg up and do this. Arnie sat there that whole morning, buddy, and I one a couple times I thought he was asleep. Like a statue. Like a statue. He was, man. I thought he was asleep, you know. Um, yeah, but that was exciting.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

That his gums turned white. He'd squeezed the blood right out of his gums. I was so proud and happy for him. I couldn't stand it.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

If you go to the Alpha Gal endorseman Facebook page, um I got some pretty good pictures uh carrying the birds out and um you know uh sitting on the tailgate, you know. Uh man, what a what a what an exciting, exciting morning, man. You know, um that that farm down there, I love it. It it just holds so many birds. It is now that being said, that was the end of that. Yeah, yeah. There was not just us. I mean, I was looking at all the uh you know the Facebook pages for eastern Kentucky and for Kentucky and all over. And people's been having a hard time with goblin. You know, they are just not talking this year, and we definitely encountered that. We did, man, because we hit it hard for two more days, two more days and a half, and um it was hard. But you took in birds, so you and you and um Arnie took in birds, and you rolled back to the house and um to clean them. And um, man, so you know, I I I I think I've talked about I know I've talked about this a million times. We got a house rule at the cabin, spray your clothes down, use promethrin, you know. Uh we we we lather up with tick spray around our skin, our wrist, and our ankles, and our waistline, and you know, um, but that bird, when you clean that bird, it was covered with ticks, huh?

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Yeah, when we uh we started to uh field dress them and get them get them together, uh I pulled back the wings and they were covered. I mean, underneath, like uh right there at the uh the breast where the the uh wing meets the uh breast, they were covered. They were all attached, they were nymphs, they were uh uh I don't know. C ticks? Yeah, and they were just covered with them. I literally uh scraped them off uh you know with with my knife and uh popped them as they went. And uh it was uh I was amazed. I actually asked Arnie, did he have any? His bird didn't have a one. Really? Not a one. My my uh my bird was covered both sides, left and right, right underneath the wing, same spot. So somewhere, somehow, that bird's probably got into a nest or something. Yeah, and he was a he was ate up with them. Yeah, yeah. So of course that makes uh you know it it puts you uh it makes you hypersensitive to everything you do at that point. You know, when you're cleaning, you don't want to flick one of them on you or you know.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Yeah, yeah. I enjoyed, I'll tell you, I enjoyed going in without a gun and trying to film, which I kind of suck at, you know, and and just calling for you guys.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Man, that was so much fun, you know. Um and you did an amazing job. Those birds, you held those birds there for uh, I mean, just forever. They if if they hadn't uh we hadn't popped that shot off, I I believe they'd have probably stayed there until they located where that hen was.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

I can't believe they didn't come all the way to me. Now there was um there was quite a bit of thick underbrush. That's kind of where I chose, that's why I chose that spot to set. And there was quite quite a bit of thick underbrush that it was hard to see through. And I think that, you know, I mean, and crawling and for a turkey to go through that kind of stuff is a little bit of a threat to them because that's everything out there wants to eat a turkey. You know, so and I think that's why they just hung around there hoping that I would come on over to them and then they could move on with their day. You know, they they would have had three toms and four or five hens, and um, they'd have been looking good.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Well, they sure they sure uh we busted up the party. They walked to Rio Grande, that ridge they came up, and son, it was straight up down. I couldn't believe it. Because we went down it. Well, your bird almost went to the bottom.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

We might as well go down this. He was still running, hadn't known he was dead. Yeah. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

He was still getting it.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Yeah, yeah. So that afternoon, I hunted, I hunted by myself. Um, I so we was done. That was 7.30, right? We load up, we go back to camp. I jumped in another truck, I go to a different farm, and um um I hunted till about I had a meeting at one, I hunted till about noon, 12.15, and not a gobble, not nothing. Um, and I set them most of the time. I walked up when I got in on this ridge and sat down and just called and set, and I'd call a little while, and I and I don't I don't call consecutive. I'll call, I'll run a sequence maybe with a box call, mouth call, and a slate call, doing a couple different things for about three or four minutes, maybe five max, and then um I'll stop. And sometimes I only stop for three or four minutes, but then other times I'll stop for 15 or 20 minutes and just sit and watch and listen. And um, I had nothing. So I got back and I went back out that late afternoon, but it started raining, so I hunted till I got back out about 2 30, and um there's a nice greenway in this bottom on our second farm, man. And there's uh it's a it looks like a great place for a strut zone. I can't say I've ever seen a bird there, but it just looks too birdie to not be. So I went in and I set up and I did the same thing. I just run some call sequences over and over and taking a little break. It started raining. I think it was about 5 30 or 6. I got up under a pine tree and tried sticking her out, but I just finally I was just I was just gonna get wet and um I I headed on in. I don't mind hunting in the rain, but I don't want to hunt in a downpour where I get soaked, and we had a pretty good one. So um but then Sunday we went back to the farm. Now another little think about Sunday morning. Was that did we go in Sunday morning over there? We went Sunday morning over to the new place. Oh that's right, yeah. Man, I tell you what, that's another reason why I love you. You've heard me say it. If you heard me say it once, you've heard me say it a thousand times on the podcast and on YouTube. I love hunting eastern Kentucky because it's just there's just so much more room than what I'm used to up and home. But Arnie's been down here for so many years, he knows everybody. So he put a phone call in to the farm across the street, which is 148 acres, and it's surrounded by other big farms. And um, we went in first thing in the morning and set some decoys up on a bank field edge where we had seen turkeys in before. And um, I think we called till what 1030. 10 10 30, yeah. Yeah, and then uh we got up and we literally almost walked that 140 acres. We would walk 40, 50 yards and stop and call a few times. We did everything from hoot out a crow to purz clucks and cutting, everything in between, trying to find, trying to find one gobbler. Nothing, nothing, man. And um that evening we went back to the farm where we know they roost, or a general area where that we know they roost. And the and the problem that we ran into is Arnie's got a house on the farm. And I don't mind kids being kids. I'm not com- I'm not complaining about the kids at all because I think it's awesome that they was in the woods playing instead of in the house on a computer. But we um we headed um we headed back to the farm, and uh like I said, Arnie's got a house on the farm, and when we pulled in, we pulled in past the house back to where we was going, and one of the tenants came out and she said, I didn't know you guys was coming back. And we're like, Yeah, we're gonna be here for a couple days. And she said, My kids are up in there. And you're like, ah, so and I and I I'm like, they're not gonna hurt nothing. I mean, because we was going in, it was early. What time was it? Oh, it was uh it was three o'clock. Three o'clock. Yeah, three o'clock. And we're gonna go in there and hunt till dark. I'm like, they're not hurting nothing. She said I sent them a text when they get on top or something like that, it'll ring and they'll get it. And these kids, I mean how old was they?

SPEAKER_00 24:41

They were, I mean, they were 13, 14, 15. That was the oldest. Yeah, 10 and 13, too. All the way down to probably 10 years old and nine years old.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Yeah, yeah. So um, only thing I told her is like, I hope you got bug spray, I hope you got tick spray on them kids. And she said she did. She said she did. Um, but um, so we went in and I went up toward the pond to look for them because that's where they were supposed to be. But while you guys was standing waiting on me, they come out, right? They did. Them and the dogs. They said, Hey, oh, them and the dogs. They said, Hey, your mom wants you up at the house. And um, so who knows how long they had been running around back here, you know, running birds out, and you know, we are not mad about it at all. I it was awesome to see them kids in the woods. Do not take this wrong at all, you know. Um, I think it was awesome. But we climbed up on the ridge where we know turkeys roost in the area, and we set up, and we probably got set down about 3:30, and we literally sat till dark and never moved and called and waited and watched and then called a little more. One hand, one hand. And what time that was like uh seven? Yeah, it was around 6:45, 7 o'clock. Yeah, uh 7 o'clock. Um came in all by herself on your side again, and this time Arnie was sitting behind me about 20 feet, looking over a ridge to my back. I'm looking up the ridge, and then you're to my right about you was about 25 yards over. You were sitting on another ridge coming up. So we had everything covered, and I did have a shotgun with me that evening.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

Um but she came up the ridge, um, and um I said I seen her head, and I pulled the gun up and then realized another hen.

unknown 26:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Yeah, and she'd come within uh she was about 20 yards straight out in front of me.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Yeah. And um either one of us, if it'd been been the right, you know, gender.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Yeah, she yeah, exactly. We both could have killed her for sure. Uh she came over scratching and she clucked a few times like uh hey, I'm over here, hey, I'm over here, and then turn right around. Well, this whole sequence lasted about 15 minutes. Yeah. And then she turned around and went right back the way she came. And uh, I think she was just coming up in there looking for that other hen. She, you know, seeing who I was and what I had going on and and that sort of stuff. Um, but that was exciting. I mean, always you got a hen in, it's the perfect decoy. I love watching them. Yeah, right, right. And uh Arnie he couldn't see her because he had his back, but he did hear her, and um, he was like, man, he's like, it sounded like she was right in your lap. I'm like, yeah, yeah, she was right there 20 yards, you know. Oh yeah. Um and when I had her in that close, you know, I didn't call. Oh no, wait, when she was clucking up there, I was trying to imitate her. Yeah, and um, and that was pretty neat. That was a pretty neat little sequence right there.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

When yeah, she kind of excited. She got uh she was a little more verbal when you were answering her. It was like you guys were talking.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Yeah, she would cluck and purr, cluck and purr, cluck and purr, and it was like um that's pretty neat. Um, yeah, and then like I said, the whole sequence lasted maybe about 15 minutes. Um she was out. I just knew. I just knew, man, that them uh them birds was gonna be sliding in there, but you know, the way that holler is, the kids went back to the house because they knew that we was hunting up in there. But the way that holler is, it's like a big horseshoe. It was playing at the house and it sounded like it was in your lap. Didn't it?

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Yeah, they were uh I mean just funnels. I mean it's yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

I don't know if I don't know if that's what kept the birds from not coming. I mean they don't I don't know that they roost in the same place every night or you know, close to you know, I know roost locations at home, you'll find them there and sometimes you won't find them there.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

So we did have a couple gobbles at the end of the night.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

Uh we didn't have enough time to it was just all the way across on the wrong side of the farm, you know. And when you're up on one ridge, you can hear the other ridge, but the fact that you got to get there, it could be 30 minutes. Or longer or longer if you're toting me around. Yeah, it's a long way over there, so you can't just drop and go, you know. Um that makes it a little true, that makes it a little tough. So, all in all, it was awesome because we did have a double opening morning, but we never had a bird after that. We it was it was we never and then like I said, all the far all the forums on Facebook, it sounds like I will tell you this. I seen this one young man on he on two different one is like I won't even say the Facebook name, because I'm not trying to bash anybody, you know, but this uh people are talking about man, you hear any gobbles? Nope, no gobbles anywhere. And they're like, man, they're just quiet. And a few people are killing some birds. A few people are, and and a few birds are gobbling. Like the one we killed, we hear one gobble. Um this guy's on there and he's like, You want me to come and call you a bird in? I'm like, man, would you? I'll say, please.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

Yeah, you'd be able to film for sure then. Oh, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Yeah, come on over, Bubba. You know, I seen him on two different Facebook pages. Like, yeah, he's the man. He must have had him a good luck morning like we did the first morning. And yeah. But um, so um anything Alpha Gal that we you noticed this weekend? We had a good weekend. We did have a good weekend.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

We had a great weekend considering we didn't find any ticks on us. Oh, right. So uh it tells you preparation is everything. You know, uh, like you said, uh we have standing orders when we go in. Yeah. Uh douse your clothes, let them dry overnight, and uh reapply uh best you can. So yeah. Uh kudos to you for that regiment. Uh I know you're you're pretty strict about it and you're literally we are diligent about it.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

Yeah, we literally rolled around in the in the leaves and we sat on the ground. Oh, it was. Uh neither none of us we had, you know, well, we mean you had a turkey vest with a cushion, but Arnie just sat on the ground. Um and for days we just rolled around in the leaf litter and knock on wood, nobody got a tick on them. So that permethrin works. Do not think it don't work. Um, and I use the repel uh tick. Um is that what it's called? Repel tick. Yeah, deep woods. Yeah, deep woods uh it says tick on it, whatever it says. Yeah, it's kind of a red can, it says tick on it. And um, you know, I just uh I sprayed a little on my hand, rub my hands together, do my ears and around the back of my neck, spray the inside of my hat, uh, do my wrist and my up to about my elbows, pull my pants up, my socks down, and get my shins and calves, and then around my waistline, because I don't tuck, I don't tuck my shirt in, you know. I get uh if I tuck it in, it'd be untucked after halfway the first ridge.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

So I will say that uh, you know, thinking that you know you you're not gonna get a tick on you or you know it doesn't ever happen, I think that turkey explained it all. They're there. They're there, they're there in abundance. Oh son.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

Small, big, and little. I mean I'm telling you right now, if you'd have gone out there without any of that repellent on, son, you would have been covered in ticks. I can I could I guarantee you.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

Those seed ticks that were on that turkey were so hard to see. If it hadn't been for the the white underlayment of that, those feathers, I you never know they look like dirt. Yeah. Wouldn't have paid no attention to them. So uh precaution. And you scraped them off outside, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Ah boy. Kill him, son of a gun. The Holocaust for ticks on that day. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, yeah. So uh, and we gave the shout-out to uh Skybridge and Miguel's on the way down because um um we ate it both. Uh Friday night, well, first night down, we went over Skybridge. I got the veggie burger, got the classic veggie burger. It was out of sight. Um, and then uh you and I went to Miguel's for lunch yesterday. Arnie met us there. Arnie met us. That's right, he met us there before he went home. He had to go home yesterday. So um you got a son of a gun. All meat on meat lovers. Yeah, but his come out, so you go you went to commence to eat? Yeah. We got uh large pizzas because we had lunch yesterday, and then both of us took our leftovers back to the house, stuck them in the fridge, and that was our dinner last night too. But he got the um meat lovers, and I got the allergy pizza, you know, uh green peppers, green olives, mushrooms. You got the pizza.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

I want to live forever pizza.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

I want to live forever pizza. And um, they brought yours out on the thing because you're eating here, but the allergy pizza come out in a box that said allergy across the top. So another a double shout-out, you know, to Miguel's for that one. Um, but I want to give a be a more like Angelo segment of a shout-out right here.

SPEAKER_02 33:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

So my wife is crazy about she likes Jersey Mics, she sure does. And um, Roy and I, you know, uh we decide we'd stop at Jersey Mike's on the way home. And I eat there with my wife. Um, I eat there. I'll stop in, uh, you know, a lot of times I'll get the turkey sub and stuff, but today for lunch, you know, I walk in, there's nobody there, so I don't like putting pressure on them a lot when they're busy, but nobody's there, so it's grill time for me, right? I order the chicken filly and I said, I have alpha Gauss syndrome. And she looked at me kind of funny, and then I repeated, I said, It's the red meat allergy. And she said, Oh, oh, I got ya. And um, I stood there and watched her clean that grill because you know you gotta make sure it's clean right, right? Um, so um I watched her clean that grill. She took her scraper, she scraped, she heated it up, throwed some oil to it, scraped, scraped, she scraped it uh for a while, and then she took this rag, um, and it was I don't know what kind of cleaner she had on it. Okay, I guess I probably should have known, but I didn't. Took that rag and throwed it on there, and it was wet, and it had some cleaner, and she took the scraper and put on top of that dude, and she scrubbed it, son, scrubbed it. She just I felt like the crawdy kid over there, wax on, wax off. She cleaned that sucker, buddy. And um, yeah, so I'm gonna give the uh be more like Angelo shout-out to Jersey Mike's in Winchester, Kentucky. Um, did a great job. And I've ate there before. That's how I know it was safe for me to go there because I have ate there before, um, and I guess they deserve that shout-out for sure. So um I don't know what else you got there, Roy Boy. Uh, I tell you the hemlock Hill. Hemlock Hill. Acorn Ridge. So, here again, a word from our sponsors. If you go to Facebook and you look up Hemlock Hill and Acorn Ridge at Red River Gorge. Um, if you like what you see and you want a weekend getaway at a cabin at Natural Bridge State Park or Red River Gorge, um both of these cabins are with minutes away. You can send an email to alpha galendorsman at gmail.com and you can get 10% off of your entire stay at either one of those cabins. So go to the Facebook page. Again, it's Hemlock Hill and Acorn Ridge at Red River Gorge. Um take a look at them, um, and then you can send that email to alpha galendorsman at gmail.com, and we will send you the code and the phone number to call and get you 10% off your weekend stay. How do you like Hemlock?

SPEAKER_00 36:27

Uh man, I tell you, it has become a home away from home. I I have I have my room down in the basement. I go down there and it's the amenities of home, the hot tub, the bathrooms are great and clean, and and the beds are amazingly comfortable, and uh couch for living space, uh, or you can join the party upstairs.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

That's right, yeah. Yeah. I um I did I jumped a hot tub that first night, Saturday night, and did a hit tick check, you know, got to climb the hot tub and did a good tick check at night. And that heart that hot tub's hard to beat, buddy, after you've been hiking the eastern Kentucky Mountains down here for sure.

SPEAKER_00 37:08

My uh knees were uh you know, thanking cheeseburger thanking cheeseburgers. For the love of cheeseburgers. For the love of cheeseburgers, uh Saturday and Sunday, or Sunday and Monday, it will I got into them and it was uh it was it was nice. I got up and I felt renewed and uh I was I was ready for a weedle climb on uh each morning. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:35

Yeah, uh there's so much room. We talked about that 140 acres that we hunted down here, and there's just so much room, man. You know, but I do look out across through there. I mean, we crossed a I don't know if you call it like an open field, because it was, but it was not complete timber. It had grass knee high and it had bras. You could get through it pretty easily. Yeah, but I'm just looking out through there and I'm thinking, ticks. Ticks. You know what I mean? It's like but I'm getting more and more confident when I know when I first started using permethrin, my confidence level wasn't there in it. I mean, I I I wish I'd known, I wish I'd have done all this before Alpha Gal, but hindsight's 2020. And um but my confidence level in you know dosing downward permethrin now is I don't give it, I don't give it second thoughts.

SPEAKER_00 38:31

You know, the first uh couple years I I was really uh not sold on it. But after especially a weekend like this weekend where we had 80 degree weather and uh just witnessing the the wildlife what it had, I thought, man, we're going through the same, we're sitting there, I mean, we're I mean, we're just waiting. Right. And uh so I can say uh, like I said, your regiment is uh hands down bar none.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

Uh probably saved me from uh a world of uh well Roy, so um let's let's let's chat on that for a minute. So you had a a major surgery how many years ago now?

SPEAKER_00 39:16

Uh in 2002, I had a uh gastric bypass, uh which they don't do uh often anymore. It was a uh it's kind of the most extreme. I was a big boy, I was uh 537 pounds. Uh so I did a what they call a BPD, which is a bilio pancreatic doudenal switch. Can you say that again? Trust me, it took me about nine years to say it. Yeah. Uh BPD, it was uh it's a uh you they kind of bypass your uh you know, kind of tearing some tubes around your stomach and trying to tin things up. So now what I eat passes through me immensely quick. Uh so I process food uh at a much higher rate. At a much higher rate. So my protein levels are uh above above normal. I'm you are required to eat between 80 and 90 grams of protein a day. So so put that in perspective. What is a normal person? So uh an eight-ounce steak, you're talking, you know, 10 10 grams, maybe eight to ten grams of protein, according to what kind of steak.

SPEAKER_01 40:24

All right, and so that would be the big meal for somebody per day.

SPEAKER_00 40:27

Now you also have to remember with this surgery, you they cut your stomach in half and then they sow it, staple it, and they do a bunch of stuff. So you're so your stomach's much smaller. So a steak that's 10 ounces is a big, it's a big boy. Right. I mean, sure. Yeah, beef takes a long time to digest. Right. Uh chicken, roughly that same size, about six, six, eight grams of protein. And it probably takes less time to digest. It does. Yeah. Okay. So with I know when I had it, I a huge vegetable eater. I grew up busting beans with granny on the porch and and picking potatoes and and beets and and you just everything that had to do with hillbilly country living is what I did, and I loved them. I mean, uh, you know. But you had to switch your diet. I did. I I literally, uh, when I first got this, I consumed no vegetables at all because I was I was so weak and my iron levels were so low that I struggled. All you ate was meat. Just meat. I mean jerkies and uh and just steak burgers. And with this surgery, you can't eat and drink at the same time because you're filling up space with unnecessary. Fluids, that makes sense. Yeah, you gotta get all the you gotta get all the protein in you you can get. Now, granted, I did eat multiple times a day. Uh, you know, and looking at it, if you just watched me eat all day, you would think I don't know how this guy doesn't weigh 600 pounds. But the problem is, is it's uh it's such a fast process. Uh you know, your stomach is is processing things so fast.

SPEAKER_01 42:09

So well, I've noticed when we come down for deer camp and turkey camp, we come down hunting, that you load up on lunch meets. I do. You load up on lunch meets, and you you're one that almost eats every morning when we go. Like this last couple days, we haven't ate breakfast much because we've been on the move quick, but I noticed deer camp, you're up because it gets light so much later. Yeah. Um, but I you are you're and and on top of that, like deer season, I noticed you're packing a couple sandwiches, and I've watched you make a sandwich. It's two pieces of bread and piles of meat. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:45

And it's you know, lunch meat isn't the best, but it's it's meat nonetheless. Right. You know, I try to uh I love baloney, I'm a hillbilly, you know. I love baloney, uh, you know, in all forms. You know, pickled, yeah, whatever it is. Yeah, uh, you know, I but I try to eat butter, I try to eat uh ham. Uh, you know, my wife has been very gracious, she'll bake a ham and I'll make ham sandwiches with, you know, uh hemp stuff like that. But it is it's a struggle. You get you get tired of eating meat.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

You get tired of so yeah, so in relatable, in relating to you gotta have 80 to 90 grams of protein a day. Now, if you was to get Alpha Gauss syndrome and you couldn't eat beef, pork, or none of them things, it's gonna limit you to if for a regular grocery store, chicken and turkey. Yeah, it's and chicken and turkey is good as good proteins, but they don't carry the amount of protein that beef does or pork, correct? Oh, correct. So, and then if you wanted to do better than that, if you wanted to one up it, you could always call one of these farms that raises emu, ostrich, and duck, and and you could buy your meat, but that is incredibly. Expensive. Right. I order from one of them and I order, you know, like smoked duck breast and duck bacon, um, emu and ostrich steaks, and uh, you know, uh emu grind or ostrich grind for for burgers and stuff like that. And I can't do it all the time because I mean you get a shipment in, it's it's 150 bucks, you know, and I kind of sparingly use it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 44:24

And we talked about it when you got it. You can only eat so much chicken before you are just I hate chicken. That's my wife. Um and my wife loves chicken, she's very selective, she's very picky. Uh she doesn't eat fish, she doesn't eat much wild game. Uh so in perspective, I it would be it would be tragic. Yeah, no, right. And it would be a complete somebody like yourself that does eat, you know, wild game a lot. And in a select, right, even before you got Alpha Gal. Yeah. Uh and your wife is is great. She's uh adventurous with trying things that you know Oh yeah, she'll eat it. Yeah. So my my life would would have a it would impact my life in such a way that it would uh Yeah, because your wife don't eat that, does she? She won't eat wild gang. No, she uh she no fish, no duck, no, no goose, no uh I mean I threw an emu at her. She she might try to make it a pet, but she ain't eating it.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

Yeah. Now whether or not now I will say this. My do one might Nikki'll eat it. But she doesn't. She doesn't fore we're gonna make a meatloaf, she wants a meatloaf, you know. But now we have made meatloaf out of ostrich grind, and it's good, and she'll eat it. Um, but you know, I know uh she's a trooper, man, but I know she'd prefer to have uh who wouldn't want a regular old meatloaf.

SPEAKER_00 45:49

Don't let your meatloaf, Roy. Yeah, and you know, and listening to the last few podcasts with people that have struggled to get medical people to diagnose this right, somebody such as myself that has gone through uh you know a gastric bypass, we we would fit into other categories that they might not even look at alpha gal.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

I wonder if it's happened out there. If there's anybody out there that has gotten Alpha Gal that's had gastric bypass surgery, I would love to talk to you. Shoot me an email at alpha galendorsman at gmail.com because I would love to talk to you and and see just what they gotta do, you know. Um there's gotta be somebody.

SPEAKER_00 46:31

And I'll be honest with you, you know, several years ago I I dropped 80 pounds in lord literally four months. Went to all the allogists that you can do, oncologists, hematologists, uh proctologists. I mean, I hit them all. They could not explain it. They and they tested me for Crohn's, they tested me for everything. I remember that, yeah. Uh they went up and down uh all ends of me trying to figure out what it was. Every orphous. Every orphice was nothing was safe.

SPEAKER_01 46:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:59

You know, you've been violating it. I just begged them not to go down the same hole with the same equipment that they went in the other holes. You know, uh, but you know, that happens with people with gastric bypass. Sometimes your body just it plateaus for a long time, and then all of a sudden, bang, you know, something changes in your body, and you'll go through uh, you know, a pretty good weight loss. And of course, everybody wants to throw it down the cancer, cancer alleyway. Yeah, that was kind of scary. I remember that. And uh, you know, but I did they ever figure it out? Never. Never figured it out. My body, my literally, my body just was like, alright, I'm done goofing around. I gained weight back, uh, you know, but uh my iron levels went crazy, uh, you know. And I will say that I do I take my blood work uh very seriously. I get my blood, all my you know, blood work done religiously. Uh but somebody that catches Alpha Gal, it's such a rare find up at our house, basically. Right. You know, I watched you struggle and I thought, my God, if I found something like that, they would swear I was dying of cancer immediately. And not ever be able to give me a chance to recover the way that you were able to recover by self-diagnosing.

SPEAKER_01 48:12

Right, right. Well, uh there's got there, I surely there's somebody out there. So I'm gonna try to find somebody that if you know somebody that's got Alpha Gal, that's had basic got any kind of surgery, any kind of surgery, it don't have to be that, you know. Uh I'd like to hear from them. So um, we had a good weekend. We did, man. It was hard leaving this morning.

SPEAKER_00 48:34

The real world's calling. Uh, it is, and I will say that the turkey hunt was amazing. Snitzel. The schnitzel was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 48:41

We got back that night.

SPEAKER_00 48:42

Oh, I almost forgot the best part, man. I actually ate the last piece of schnitzel. I stole it this morning when I throw it out the old taters. Oh, it was in the refrigerator, yeah. I hung them up. I didn't tell nobody until it was all gone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

It was as good cold as well. So we we um the night we killed them birds, we come back and um I take that, I take them breasts and we cut them into pieces, uh, probably about the size of a hamburger bun if you wanted to put it on a burger or something like that. Took that dude and I took a real good coffee mug that can take a beaten, laid it out on a coffee board, and I beat that turkey breast as thin as I could get it. And then I just used some Andy's fish batter or you know, breading, and um, I think that's what it was. Um, you know, you gotta and and check it. If you got alpha gal, check it because you gotta know your allergy. So um I'm safe with it, but you need to check it. But so just rolled it in there and then cooked it in some vegetable oil, and uh I I got a little bit of a video, I think, of um that's stir-frying. Yep, yep. Uh had some uh baked potatoes, and um we had uh uh red, yellow, and green peppers and onions all diced up and and oh man. Can we give a shout out to the turkey legs? Because there's a lot of people that are throwing them out. Let me tell you a lot, yes, and don't do that. We took all four of them turkey legs. First time for all of us, fowled them in, cleaned them up. Roy spent an hour cleaning them turkey legs up, you know. And um the next morning when we left to go hunting, we threw them in the crock pot. And um did you notice how them little bitty bones in there kind of floated to the tops? Yeah, they almost come out themselves, they were almost like uh why birds fly again. You know, the hollow hollow bones. We we cooked that sucker all day long. We come rolling in, it was about five o'clock. No, it was afternoon. Yeah, it was afternoonish. Come in about three o'clock to grab some lunch before we headed back out. And um, holy wow, man. We took a few samples and then we put it down on low, and then we come back in that evening, and you literally grabbed the bone, pulled the bone out, and threw it away. Now, them wild turkey drumsticks have um they got some a lot of little bitty bones and sinu and all that stuff in it, and every bit of it pulled right out. Yeah, we took a we took a Walmart trash bag thing and set it on the stove right beside it and just picked them out. It took about five minutes and the most amazing meat that never would have guessed it. A lot of people throw them away because because of that, they're just too hard. But don't throw them away, throw them in the crock pot. They are getting pressure cook them, crock pot cook them, but some you will not be disappointed. You will not be disappointed, and it's kind of um it's definitely a darker meat than the breast, um, but man, it's just packed so full of flavor. And we put one, I I found uh you and you know how it is getting chicken broth with Alpha Gal. You gotta scan the labels and make sure that it has nothing in there. There's only certain kinds, but um get you a safe chicken broth and dump it in there on top of them. You will not be disappointed. They was get down good. We ate wild turkey for two days, and man, it hurt my feelings. It was so good. Yeah, yeah. Well Roy, what is next? And um, I guess next is gonna be Kentucky rifle season. Yeah, unless we can get some fishing or some uh hunting hunting in. We got um Ohio wild turkey season comes in this weekend. Um so uh maybe we can sneak out. You look at your work schedule, I'll look at mine. Maybe we can sneak out up home and get a day in. So I'm gonna post these pictures um on the AlphaGout Dorsman Facebook page. Um a shout out to Eddie Palmer, him and Bailey. Uh finally filled that uh one of their uh South Georgia tags down there uh using his wingbone turkey call. So uh shout out to him. Um I guess that's about it. You got any final words? Man, love you, Kentucky, and I'm gonna miss you till I get back. That's right, that's right, Eastern Kentucky. So thanks again for listening to Alpha Galdoorsman. I gotta find out to shut this thing off now. This might take me going down the road. Oh, here we go. I'm gonna have to edit this in. Thanks again for listening to Alpha Gowdoorsman. Tuning in to Alpha Gow Outdoorsman. Make sure to hit that follow button. And until we meet again, wear your ticker, fella.